Taxi drivers in Nanjing often get a bad rap. Quite often that’s on account of abysmal driving skills that put the lives of their passengers and other road users in danger. Hence, it’s a pleasant surprise that one driver was responsible for saving a life, not endangering it.
It was in the past few days that the driver for an online car hailing outfit, surnamed Jian, one night received notification of a new fare, with the pick-up point being one of the approach roads to the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge.
But when Jian arrived at the point, he found his passenger to be a teenage girl who quickly became distraught. She also starting to voice suicidal intentions to her driver.
Jian then called the police, who were on the scene within minutes from the nearest police station.
From an officer’s body cam footage, released as the bulk of a report by Shanghai media outlet, The Paper, the girl, who has not been named, appears to be 14 or 15 years old.
“Don’t blame ‘Uncle’ Jian for calling the police”, the driver says to the girl. “You must have been wronged”, he went on, referring to the girl’s emotional state.
“I was never going to mess with you”, continued Jian. “I was just going to be here with you. So you could relax.”
“The police; they were going to be here any minute. I just didn’t want you to have any bad ideas.”
“My daughter is about your age”, then said Jian. Upon hearing these words, the girl broke into tears. Nanjing’s finest then took her back to the police station. There, they poured her a glass of water and continued to gently dissuade.
As a result of their and Jian’s efforts, the teenager at long last gave up her idea of suicide.
The Nanjinger salutes Jian as a shining example of the kind of behaviour that can help boost the reputation of Nanjing’s taxi drivers. Together with the level of transparency offered by today’s technology, people like Jian are making their vehicles a safer place to be, no matter a passenger’s emotional state.
